Saving Seafood

MAINE: Petition seeks moratorium on large aquaculture leases

March 22, 2019 — Save Maquoit Bay, a group formed to address issues with aquaculture, and lobstermen from around the state have submitted a petition to the Department of Marine Resources requesting an immediate moratorium on aquaculture leases greater than 10 acres in size.

The petition has 189 signatures, 39 more than required to open rulemaking around aquaculture leases, according to a news release.

The petition comes in the wake of an application by Mere Point Oyster Co. for a 40-acre lease in the bay, which is in the north end of Casco Bay, in between Freeport and Brunswick. The application, for a 10-year lease, is to cultivate Eastern oysters, bay scallops and sea scallops.

Mere Point Oyster Co. is owned by Dan Devereaux and Doug Niven.

Supporters of the petition spoke about it at a Tuesday news conference at the State House.

Read the full story at MaineBiz

MAINE: Group including lobstermen wants state to clamp down on aquaculture licenses

March 21, 2019 — Lobstermen are among the organizers of a citizen petition asking the state to limit where new aquaculture operations are sited in Maine’s coastal waters, claiming the surge in new licenses affects where they can drop traps.

A wave of aquaculture operations has swept along the coast in the last few years, sparking concerns from lobstermen and others about waterfront access, aesthetics and interference with commercial fisheries.

A 40-acre oyster farm proposed in Maquoit Bay in Brunswick by Mere Point Oyster Co. is a flashpoint in the debate. The hearing on its application prompted three days of prolonged, contentious discussion, involving landowners in the upscale neighborhood of Merepoint, members of the town’s fishing community and others.

“I’m here to let the Department of Marine Resources know that their system of granting aquaculture leases is broken or, even worse, non-existent, as far as it pertains to the commercial lobstermen in this state,” John Powers, a lobsterman who has fished around Brunswick for 40 years, said at a news conference in the State House on Wednesday.

Powers was among a handful of organizers who submitted a petition with 189 signatures to the Department of Marine Resources, almost 40 more signatures than needed to trigger the rule-making process.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Maine-based seafood company, stuck in limbo due to government shutdown, back in business

March 19, 2019 — A Maine-based smokehouse that produces cold-smoked Atlantic salmon is back in business after overcoming the loss of its license to the FDA three years ago, and being stuck in limbo during the U.S. government shutdown as it tried to restart operations.

Sullivan Harbor Farm Smokehouse, located in Hancock Village, Maine, reopened on 12 March after regaining FDA approval and documentation. The smokehouse lost its license roughly three years ago, and was then purchased by the company’s current president and owner, Leslie Harlow, who was one of the original founding partners.

Harlow had parted ways with the business back in 2005, but when the business was shut down in 2016 she bought out the former partner and begin the process of reopening. The final hurdle was the government shutdown, which further delayed the reopening as FDA officials were unavailable to give final approvals.

“Three years ago, when I took this project on, the goal was to make the facility and products compliant and safe, while still preserving the artisanal methods that made Sullivan Harbor Farm smoked salmon a stand-out from the rest,” Harlow said. “The experience was bewildering at times, but we persisted. Grit, hard work, and a belief in small entrepreneurship brought us to where we are today.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Maine’s 2019 eel fishing season set to begin as state cracks down on criminal activity

March 18, 2019 — A year after eel fishermen in Maine earned their highest-ever pay rates for their catch, and as the global appetite for the snake-like fish continues to grow, the state’s annual baby eel fishing season is set to begin Friday.

But while fishermen hope again to be paid more than $2,000 per pound for the baby eels — also known as glass eels or elvers — that swim into their nets this spring, some things will be different for the licensed dealers who buy them. State officials have put new rules in place aimed at preventing dealers from buying elvers under the counter, out of view of regulators who are charged with limiting Maine’s annual statewide harvest to 9,688 pounds.

The new regulations come on the heels of the latest investigation of criminal activity in the fishery in which a few dealers were buying elvers with cash from fishermen, with neither party reporting the catch to the Maine Department of Marine Resources. The 2018 elver season was shut down two weeks early after state officials learned of the scheme out of concern that the unreported catch may have put Maine over its annual harvest limit.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

MAINE: Cod fishery plummets to least valuable year since 1960s

March 18, 2019 — Maine’s cod fishery, once one of the most lucrative in the Northeast, has declined to the point that it had its least valuable year in more than a half-century in 2018.

The state’s industry harvesting the fish-and-chips staple goes back centuries, and it once brought millions of pounds of the fish to land year after year. But data from the state Department of Marine Resources indicate the state’s cod was worth just over $200,000 at the docks last year — less than the median price of a single-family home in Maine.

That’s the lowest number since 1967, and a fraction of the $2 million to $16 million worth of cod fishermen routinely brought to land in Maine in the 1980s and ’90s. The volume of last year’s catch was also the second-lowest in recorded history, barely edging out last year at about 89,000 pounds.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The New Haven Register

Offshore wind industry could come to Gulf of Maine

March 15, 2019 — The offshore wind gold rush has largely blown past the Gulf of Maine.

Not anymore.

German utility EnBW just joined a lobbying and trade group, Clean Energy New Hampshire. Normally, such a minor corporate move goes unremarked. But this one represents an important milestone: EnBW becomes the first offshore wind developer to publicly show an interest in developing waters near the New Hampshire coastline.

Bill White, EnBW’s North American managing director, says his company is also eyeing the wind potential in waters off Maine and northern Massachusetts. EnBW competed in the federal government’s December auction for offshore wind leases south of Martha’s Vineyard, but was outbid.

Read the full story at the Boston Globe

Despite tariff impacts, Maine lobster market remains robust

March 15, 2019 — Just over eight months since the start of a trade war between China and the United States, the Maine lobster industry is still coping with the affects of a 25 percent tariff on their goods.

Maine had been on track to more than double the value of exports to China, with USD 87 million (EUR 76.9 million) worth of the crustacean being sold through June 2018, compared to roughly half that value through the same period in 2017. However, once China implemented a 25 percent tariff on a wide list of goods from the U.S., shipments of live lobster from Maine to China plummeted to the point that they were almost nonexistent compared to the start of the year – and things haven’t changed much since then.

“The tariff story has dominated the media, and lobster has been the case study,” Annie Tselikis, executive director of the Maine Lobster Dealers’ Association, told SeafoodSource. “We’ve been vocal about it because it really has impacted the business.”

The market, which had seen explosive growth in the past few years, suddenly dried up overnight, for reasons completely out of the hands of Maine companies shipping live lobsters to China.

Even with the challenges, however, companies that focused on live lobster shipments have managed to make up ground by re-focusing efforts in other areas.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

NOAA Fisheries Announces Increase in Common Pool Possession and Trip Limits for Gulf of Maine Cod and WITCH Flounder

March 12, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The common pool possession and trip limits for Gulf of Maine (GOM) cod and witch flounder are increased, as summarized in the table below, for the remainder of the 2018 fishing year, through April 30, 2019.

The Small Vessel Category trip limit of 300 lb of cod, yellowtail flounder, and haddock combined remains in place.

For more information read the rule as filed in the Federal Register or the bulletin as posted on our website.

Read the full release here

Mackerel fishery to be scaled back for rest of 2019

March 12, 2019 — The East Coast harvest of an economically important species of small fish will be scaled back for the rest of the year.

Fishermen catch millions of pounds of Atlantic mackerel from Maine to Virginia every year, as the fish is widely used as food. However, federal rules state that the mackerel fishery must be restricted once fishermen approach their limit for the catch of river herring and shad, which are other species of small fish.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said 95 percent of the catch cap has been exhausted. That means mackerel fishing vessels will be prohibited from fishing for more than 20,000 pounds of mackerel per trip from Tuesday to the end of the year.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Bangor Daily News

Council Approves Chub Mackerel Management Measures

March 11, 2019 — The following was published by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council:

At their meeting in Virginia Beach, VA last week, the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council approved a suite of management measures for Atlantic chub mackerel (Scomber colias) in federal waters from Maine through North Carolina. If approved by the Secretary of Commerce, the Chub Mackerel Amendment will add chub mackerel to the Mackerel, Squid, and Butterfish Fishery Management Plan.

The management measures approved by the Council include an annual total allowable landings limit of 4.50 million pounds, a 40,000 pound commercial possession limit when 90% of this limit is projected to be landed, and a 10,000 pound possession limit when 100% of this limit is projected to be landed. In addition, commercial fishermen will be required to have one of the existing federal commercial permits for longfin squid, Illex squid, Atlantic mackerel, or butterfish in order to retain any amounts of chub mackerel in federal waters from Maine through North Carolina. Fishermen who do not already have one of these permits can obtain one of the existing open access permits. Similarly, for-hire vessels will be required to have the mackerel, squid, butterfish party/charter permit in order to retain chub mackerel.

The Council developed these management measures to help ensure orderly growth and sustainability of the emerging chub mackerel fishery which recently developed in the mid-Atlantic and southern New England. In addition, Council management will help elevate the priority of data collection for this data-limited species. The Council has already taken steps to address an important data limitation by funding a study on the importance of chub mackerel in the diets of tunas, marlins, and other predators in the mid-Atlantic.

Questions? See http://www.mafmc.org/actions/chub-mackerel-amendment or contact Julia Beaty, Fishery Management Specialist, jbeaty@mafmc.org, (302)526-5250.